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Wednesday, 22 July 2015

What do we have to do with Australia? - Part 2.

Our Australian friends (who we'd met on our honeymoon in Istanbul) came to Europe for a cruise on the Danube. Their ship left from Budapest and they could visit us as well. They killed two birds with one stone and it was again a great opportunity for E. to "test" her English. (You can read about E.'s 1st real life test here when she met her English speaking cousin)

As soon as M. and B. arrived at our place, M. and E. hit it off. E. wanted to show her room and her kitchen and what she cooked. I was astonished to see it as she is never so open and welcoming to anyone, not to mention a stranger. There was no language barrier as such. It was absolutely natural for her to use English with M.

E. got some sweet presents (soft toys and books) from M. and B, which were all Australia related.

Presents for E. - Books

At first, she was a bit afraid of Jacko and the beanstalk (I guess because of the scary crocodile), but by now she's okay with it.

She really loves to identify the Australian animals in the little booklet in the top right corner. As this book also includes the national anthem, we spent one evening after dinner to listen to it on youtube

(together with several other national anthems, like the British, the US, Irish, Spanish, Colombian and the German)

Toys E. received from M. and B. Her favourite is the platypus (E. named her Platy). And we agreed they can talk in English only. She accepted it without any problem.

So our friends, M. and B., came to our place. I showed them around our area and invited them for a traditional Hungarian lunch (goulash soup, fried chicken breast in bread crumbs, mash potato plus green salad).

E. took a nap and as soon as she woke up we left for Szentendre, a town near to Budapest on the bank of the Danube.

Szentendre in pictures

Just arrived

Main Square

On the bank of the River Danube

We had a wonderful time together. E. proved her great level of English again. We've been enriched with some books on Australia, some stuffed animals from the country and the time spent with this lovely couple.

2 comments:

Aww! It sounds like such a lovely time! That's also wonderful about your daughter's English :) We speak so many languages at home right now, and sometimes I'm amazed on how much my son picks up. Those brains really are like sponges!

I've always envied those who have 3 or even more languages in everyday use in their home. We're trying to introduce Spanish to my daughter, but my command of the language is very poor. Daddy speaks it really well but he is away quite a lot. Although I know a very basic level of Spanish, my daughter already knows the numbers up to 10 - and 0, of course ;) the months and some other phrases from Dora, the Explorer. They are REALLY like sponges!!!

About Me

Hello there,
just a short intro about me. I was born in 1978, in Budapest, Hungary, and graduated as an English teacher in 2001. I spent a school year in Ireland where I taught primary school kids. Before E. was born I had been teaching at language schools, at companies and privately at home. Now my greatest "teaching" project in on: raising my baby bilingual (Hungarian- English) in a purely Hungarian environment.